Crypto Scammers Stole £55,000 From My Dad | Consumer rights

During the pandemic, my 75-year-old father was targeted by email and WhatsApp scammers who convinced him they were investment managers who could grow his £55,000 life savings into a fantastic sum by investing in cryptocurrency.

He had recently retired and was concerned that he hadn’t saved enough for his and my mother’s retirement, so was easy change. He also has very little nous and gave the scammers, an outfit called MyCoinBanking, his account details including sort codes and account numbers.

The result was that he lost the party. I only found out when I completed his last tax return as he had been too embarrassed to tell us.

We submitted a fraud claim to Barclays and the final decision was to refund him half of what was taken. The reason was that he had to share the responsibility.

We are so sorry. My father is the victim. We are angry that Barclays would tell my father – who struggles to use a mobile or the internet – that he is to blame. I think it has a duty of care.

The fraudsters were known to Barclays so they should have flagged these transactions. That it did not is a failure on its part and it should provide a full refund.

My parents now have very little money and are afraid of the future.

VS, Woking

Fraud levels have risen in recent years with the Financial Ombudsman Service, which mediates between consumers and businesses, just this week warning of a rise in savers falling for bogus investment schemes.

The fraudsters who targeted your father promised bumper returns to fund a comfortable retirement. Instead, they drained his account.

We asked Barclays to review your father’s case, but unfortunately they have not changed their mind. It has arrived at what is called a “shared fault”, which means that there are elements of both customer and bank fault. This is why your father received a 50% refund of £27,500.

Barclays says that the Financial Conduct Authority published an online warning about MyCoinBanking in 2019 (your father was targeted in October 2020) and that this was available to determine whether due diligence was carried out before the investments began.

It says it also flagged several payments, and had fraudulent conversations with him, but he approved them. Since these conversations were in a branch, it does not have transcripts to ensure that the questions asked were sufficient.

Barclays says the fraud allegation was thoroughly investigated and without new information the position is unchanged. Your father has the right to seek an independent assessment by the ombudsman. You have applied for one but, as an indication of the scale of the problem, you have been told that the waiting time is at least four months due to the number of cases it handles.

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